Fate and Destiny

Chapter 13

Gellert had woken up before she had and she woke to the smell of omelettes cooking. She dressed before heading to the kitchen. He had just finished cooking them and had set them on plates with knives and forks.

“They smell wonderful,” Cassie said as she sat down. “And waking up to a Dark Wizard cooking me breakfast is not what I expected but it is sort of amusing.”
“I did say I’d cook you some,” he said as he placed a plate in front of her. She waited for him to sit next to her with his own plate before she started eating. It felt rude to start eating before him.

“They taste wonderful too,” Cassie said after eating a piece of one of her omelettes. He smiled.
“I’m glad you like it.”
“You’re a far better cook than I am,” she said, half sighing as she picked up another piece that had been skewed on the end of her fork.
“Maybe,” he said with a shrug. “But you are far better at baking than I’ll ever be.”
“Only because my mother taught me,” she said. Then she frowned. “She never got the chance to teach me how to cook properly. Kept saying that she was going to and always cooked for me after a long day at work. When she passed, I couldn’t stand being in that house.”

“Did you get Dragon Pox?” he asked. Cassie’s eyebrows raised but shook her head.
“No. When I found out she had it, I stayed with someone I worked with for a few weeks, until she… well, until she got taken into St Mungos and everything.”
“I wish I could have been there for you,” he said. I just shrugged and continued eating.
“I did talk to Albus a little bit, told him about it, and had some tea together,” she said. “He went to the funeral too, and Aberforth did though he didn’t talk to anyone. Some of the people I worked with went too. It was nice.”
“I should have been there for you.”
“You’re here for me now,” she said. He reached out and rested his hand on her arm and gently squeezed. “I’m glad you’re here now.”

He smiled at her and she smiled back. Time seemed to slow for a moment as there was a sort of mutual understanding between the two. And then they returned to eating.

Like Gellert had promised, he didn’t immediately rush off. Cassie was glad, as she had half expected him to have forgotten and rushed away to somewhere else.

“What do we do?” Cassie asked. Gellert shrugged and she hummed, looking round the room. She hadn’t got many friends, and she didn’t spend time with her work colleagues outside of work at all. Cassie wasn’t entirely sure what adults did. Finally, her eyes landed on something and she grinned as she turned back to Gellert. “When was the last time you played wizard’s chess?”

Gellert laughed and Cassie raised her eyebrows.
“You’re being serious?”
“Have you got any better suggestions?” she asked, looking him in the eye as if to challenge him to come up with something better.
“Well, I might have at least one or two ideas,” he said, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. Cassie flushed and looked away.
“Well… um…” She looked back at him. “I’m up for it, but only if you can beat me at Wizard’s Chess.”

She knew he liked a challenge and would never back down from a challenge with such a prize. What he didn’t know was that Cassie had hoped for that suggestion. While she didn’t want to do it immediately, she was likely to agree to it whether he won at the game of Wizard’s Chess or not.

Gellert did not win at Wizard’s Chess, much to his disappointment. Cassie had learnt well from her grandmother, or at least, well enough to use her strategy of initially confusing them and then outsmarting them while pretending she had no idea what she was doing.

“You are infuriating,” he said as he stood up. There was a begrudging respect for her in his eyes. “You have never mentioned it before.”
“I try not to, otherwise my tactic doesn’t work too well if I’ve beaten my opponent several times,” she said with a shrug. She looked down at the broken pieces that would easily mend with time or a simple spell. “Though, I do have to be honest about something.”
“Did you cheat?” He did not like that prospect.
Cassie sighed, shaking her head. “No. I was just mildly curious how good you were at chess and waiting until I was a little more awake. I’m sure it wouldn’t be very fun if I was half asleep during intimate moments.”

He turned to face her, his eyebrows slightly raised and an unreadable expression on his face. She wasn’t sure what to make of it. Though, she supposed if she could beat him in a chess match when she wasn’t properly awake, he had no chance most of the time.
“Is that so?” he asked, walking back over to her. Her cheeks turned pink.
“That is so,” she said. He leaned on the table, resting his chin on his hand and looked at her. She frowned, knowing exactly what he was doing, and decided to kiss him just so he wouldn’t be so tempting.